Cleaning cotton sweepings



Patented Sept. 14, 1937 UNITED STATES am ss CLEANING COTTON SWEEPINGS Warren 0. Burgess, La Grange, Ill., assignor to Burton-Dixie Corporation, a corporation of Illinois No Drawing. Application June 5, 1936, Serial No. 83,762

4 Claims.

The present invention relates to improvements in cleaning cotton sweepings and similar cotton wastes.

Cotton sweepings, such as are secured from carding and spinning rooms, usually contain from 8 to 10% of oil, together with dirt, strings, rags and other extraneous materials, so intimately admixed with and absorbed by the cotton fiber that it has not been practical hitherto to satisfactorily and. economically clean the material and adapt it for further use wherein clean, sanitary, buoyant cotton fiber is required, as in mattresses, cotton batts, upholstering and the like. In accordance with the present process, however, such materials are thoroughly cleaned, the oil largely removed and a buoyant, sanitary utilizable product is secured, Without the use of the wet cleaning and bleaching process which has hitherto been employed.

In Patent No. 1,980,747, issued November 13, 1934, to Joseph W. Bowersox, is described a method of cleaning such cotton sweepings by agitating them to open the fibers and remove debris, mixing the greasy opened fibers with a chemically inert absorbent material, agitating the fibers and the absorbent material to remove oil and/or moisture from the fibers, and then separating the fibers from the absorbent material. Such a process is best performed by leaving the inert material in contact with the sweepings for a considerable length of time, for example, at least two hours.

It has now been discovered that rapid removal of impurities may be accomplished with equal effectiveness if the absorbent material is applied in stages, as distinguished from applying all of the material at one time. The present type of cleansing does not require any more material than was previously the case.

In carrying out the invention, the waste cotton sweepings or similar material are first thoroughly beaten and screened, for example, as in an ordinary beater or willow, to remove from the sweepings the separable dirt, dust, rags and the like. While this preliminary beating and cleaning may be dispensed with, if desired, it is preferred that it be employed, as the efficiency of separation of oil, grease and adherent dirt from the sweepings in the subsequent steps of the process is greatly facilitated thereby.

The fibers, after the preliminary cleaning or beating operation, are conveyed to a suitable mixing device, wherein a substantial proportion of a pulverulent absorbent material is thoroughly intermixed with the cotton fiber. In ordinary practice, the desired proportion of the pulverulent absorbent material is sprinkled or dusted upon the fiber as it enters an ordinary combing or carding device and in passage through which a thorough intermixture of the pulverulent material and the fiber is secured.

The absorbent material is then combed out by beating and is screened out through screens. A second batch of pulverulent material is then fed into the material in its movement through the carding device and a third batch is fed in at a later point without removal of the second. The cotton material is then carded and beaten in the ordinary manner, after which the clay is removed through screens.

The preferred absorbent material is fine white clay such as is used as a paint filler and as a filler for paper. It is preferred that it be as fine as 150 mesh. Other pulverulent material such as full ers earth, infusorial earth, powdered limestone and the like may likewise be employed. The total amount of material generally varies from 30 to 50 or 55 pounds of clay for pounds of finished sweepings, depending, of course, upon the amount of oil and grease which is to be re moved.

The absorbent material is fed in approximately equal amounts at the three points already discussed, although the amount fed in the first instance is generally somewhat more than onethird and may be as much as one-half of the total amount. In practice it has been found economical to collect the absorbent material from the second screening operation and reuse this or a portion thereof in the first operation. Before such reuse, however, the fibrous material is separated from the clay.

In this manner it is possible to obtain, clean cotton sweepings or like material in a very few minutes treatment, ordinarily about five minutes being ample for the entire operation. The oil and grease in the fiber, after completion of the operation, as determined by the usual methods, are ordinarily 3% or lower. The perceptible grease is completely removed, as well as the adherent dirt, so that the product is clean, buoyant and sanitary.

The foregoing detailed description is given for clearness of understanding only, and no unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom, but the appended claims should be construed as broadly as permissiblein view of the prior art.

I claim:

1. The method of cleaning dirty cotton waste and like materials rendered greasy by contact the amounts supplied in the three batches are approximately equal.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 in which the amounts supplied in the three batches are approximately equal, and the total amount is approximately 30-55 pounds for 100 pounds of finished sweepings.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 in which the absorptive material is powdered clay.

WARREN C. BURGESS. 

